Jordan by George Herbert
Who says that fictions only and false hair
Become a verse? Is there in truth no beauty?
Is all good structure in a winding stair?
May no lines pass, except they do their duty
Not to a true, but painted chair?
It is no verse, except enchanted groves
And sudden arbours shadow coarse-spun lines?
Must purling streams refresh a lover's loves?
Must all be veiled, while he that reads divines,
Catching the sense at two removes?
Shepherds are honest people: let them sing:
Riddle who list, for me, and pull for prime:
I envy no man's nightingale or spring;
Nor let them punish me with loss of rhyme,
Who plainly say, My God, My King.
Herbert's poem is simply brilliant, literally. This particular poem proves its own point, that poetry does not have to be difficult or wrapped up behind references to be beautiful or to convey a message. He calls other lines of poetry "coarse-spun" (line 7), meaning: thick, bulky, uncomfortable. I liken it to an itchy sweater. The word "purling" (8) according to the OED means, "to flow with a swirling motion and a murmuring sound; to gurgle", that sounds like a modern day jacuzzi and I feel it is pretty safe to say that no one's love was ever truly "refresh[ed]" in a hot pool of swirling human shed skin and... (I already went too far, I will allow the reader's imagination to cause its own mental anguish here).
The final stanza is where the poem does what the poem contends poetry can do: make sense! Herbert opens the stanza with a statement, /Shepherds are honest people/ (11); he does not complicate the meaning, it is simply a fact. No simile of "like" or "as", just simply "are". The thirteenth line could be considered the most ambiguous, /I envy no man's nightingale or spring/ (13); it is strange because there is no clarification to what is exactly meant of "nightingale" and "spring. By not clarifying these images the reader can quickly dismiss them and at the same time they can recognize the potential complexity of those images; they understand that "nightingale" and "spring" belong to some "man" and what that kind of ownership means to them is irrelevant (I wonder how Herbert would feel to find that poets never let go of either the "nightingale" or "spring" as metaphor; I also wonder if John Keats read George Herbert's work). Essentially, it says, "I am not jealous of those guys' complications" and that is pretty relatable.
Herbert's poem is simply brilliant, literally. This particular poem proves its own point, that poetry does not have to be difficult or wrapped up behind references to be beautiful or to convey a message. He calls other lines of poetry "coarse-spun" (line 7), meaning: thick, bulky, uncomfortable. I liken it to an itchy sweater. The word "purling" (8) according to the OED means, "to flow with a swirling motion and a murmuring sound; to gurgle", that sounds like a modern day jacuzzi and I feel it is pretty safe to say that no one's love was ever truly "refresh[ed]" in a hot pool of swirling human shed skin and... (I already went too far, I will allow the reader's imagination to cause its own mental anguish here).
The final stanza is where the poem does what the poem contends poetry can do: make sense! Herbert opens the stanza with a statement, /Shepherds are honest people/ (11); he does not complicate the meaning, it is simply a fact. No simile of "like" or "as", just simply "are". The thirteenth line could be considered the most ambiguous, /I envy no man's nightingale or spring/ (13); it is strange because there is no clarification to what is exactly meant of "nightingale" and "spring. By not clarifying these images the reader can quickly dismiss them and at the same time they can recognize the potential complexity of those images; they understand that "nightingale" and "spring" belong to some "man" and what that kind of ownership means to them is irrelevant (I wonder how Herbert would feel to find that poets never let go of either the "nightingale" or "spring" as metaphor; I also wonder if John Keats read George Herbert's work). Essentially, it says, "I am not jealous of those guys' complications" and that is pretty relatable.
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